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Authorities call for calm following London murder

Barbara MillerUpdated
Thu May 23 13:20:00 EST 2013

British authorities are calling for calm on the streets of London following the audacious and gruesome murder of a man in what's being described in some quarters as a terrorist attack. The two men believed to be responsible remain in separate hospitals after being shot by police at the scene of the crime in the suburb of Woolwich.

Transcript

EMILY BOURKE: British authorities are calling for calm on the streets of London following the audacious and gruesome murder of a man in what's being described in some quarters as a terrorist attack.

The two men believed to be responsible remain in separate hospitals after being shot by police at the scene of the crime in the suburb of Woolwich.

Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.

(Sound of a crowd yelling)

BARBARA MILLER: Several hundred supporters of the self-declared anti-Islamic group, the English Defence League, clash with police late in the evening in Woolwich.

The group rallied its supporters following the murder of a man in broad daylight in circumstances that are particularly disturbing.

After hacking the man to death with machetes or meat cleavers, possibly beheading him, the two attackers stayed at the scene of the crime talking to passers-by and reportedly encouraging them to take photos.

In chilling vision shown by the news channel ITV, one of them, his hands covered in blood, a meat cleaver in his hand, allows himself to be filmed.

ALLEGED ATTACKER: I apologise that women have to witness this today but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you.

BARBARA MILLER: It's not clear what land or lands the man is referring to. When he's finished he lumbers back over to the body, and talks to the other alleged attacker.

Some time later the police arrived and reportedly after the men moved towards them with weapons in their hands, both attackers were shot and wounded.

The British government is still shying away from saying this was definitely a terrorist attack.

Prime minister David Cameron.

DAVID CAMERON: There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident.

BARBARA MILLER: London's mayor Boris Johnson went a little further.

BORIS JOHNSON: The home secretary has just chaired Cobra and I'm afraid it is overwhelmingly likely now that this was indeed a terrorist incident.

Professor Michael Clarke is director of the security and defence think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute.

MICHAEL CLARKE: No question about it that these people were acting in an al-Qaeda related way. They behead people, that's what al-Qaeda does, that is what Sunni Muslims do, Shiite Muslims don't do that and al-Qaeda is a Sunni organisation.

They use the rhetoric that has been imported more or less directly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, and other al-Qaeda spokespeople over the years and the intent to kill a soldier has been expressed many times.

There are at least five people in prison at the moment who are there partly because they were trying to kill British service personnel. So this has all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda related incident.

Everything about them makes them look like people who were inspired by the al-Qaeda message.

BARBARA MILLER: Professor Michael Clarke says the two men may have been acting independently.

MICHAEL CLARKE: The body language and their lack of thinking about what they were doing and the way they were acting gives me the impression that they might well have been clean skins as they say in the security service and acting on their own motivation. I'd be a bit surprised if they were connected to some larger network.

BARBARA MILLER: The attack took place adjacent to an army barracks and it's very likely that the dead man is a serving soldier, but the government's not confirming or denying that.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is the metropolitan police commissioner:

BERNARD HOGAN-HOWE: This afternoon we've seen a horrific attack on the streets of London. A terrible murder has occurred. We've launched an investigation led by the Counter Terrorism Command and we've made two arrests in relation to that awful crime.

We now ask that people obviously give us the opportunity to thoroughly investigate this crime to make sure we get to the bottom of who committed it and why.

BARBARA MILLER: Police are calling for anyone with video footage of the attack or its aftermath to come forward.